Google’s Schmidt Says He ‘Screwed Up’ in Social Networking

Google Inc. (GOOG) Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said he “screwed up” in the area of social networking
when he was chief executive officer of the world’s largest Web-
search provider.

“I clearly knew I had to do something and I failed to do
it,” Schmidt said yesterday of his efforts to help the company
excel in social media. “The CEO should take responsibility. I
screwed up.” He was speaking at AllThingsD’s D9 Conference in
Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Google faces accelerating competition in online advertising
from Facebook Inc., which has done a better job than rivals in
helping users create profile pages and connect with friends
online. Schmidt, who was CEO for a decade before handing the
reins to Google co-founder Larry Page in April, said his company
has been unable to forge an alliance with Facebook, the largest
social network.

“We’ve tried very hard to partner with Facebook,” he
said, noting that Facebook has built a partnership instead with
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) that includes search. “Facebook has done a
number of things which I admire.”

Google, based in Mountain View, California, is working to
improve its social features. In March, it announced a service
called "+1’’ that lets Web users recommend content to friends
directly from the company’s search-results pages.

New Partners

Google will begin letting users recommend outside Web pages
as well, the company said in a blog posting today. The new
service’s partners include retailer Nordstrom Inc. (JWN) and AOL
Inc.’s Huffington Post.

“Each of them is a consumer brand that provides something
that you can’t do otherwise,” he said.

Microsoft, by contrast, “is not driving the consumer
revolution in the minds of consumers.”

Apple’s role as a rival hasn’t kept it from remaining a
Google partner, Schmidt said. Apple, whose iPhone competes with
Google’s Android devices, recently agreed to extend an accord
for Google’s search and mapping service, he said.

Google would still like Nokia Oyj to be a licensee of its
mobile Android software, Schmidt said. Microsoft landed a deal
with Nokia earlier this year to provide software for its
smartphones.

Google dropped $3.42 to $525.60 at 4 p.m. New York time on
the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares have fallen 12 percent this
year.

Schmidt, who joined Google in 2001, said he expects to be
there for a long time, although he didn’t provide specifics.
Page will bring “much product rigor” to Google as CEO, Schmidt
said.